Lecture 2 English consonants Lecture 3 English vowels Prepared by Duong Minh Hoang ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY 1 Definitions Vowels can be defined phonetically (based on how they are produced) o[.]
ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Lecture English vowels Prepared by Duong Minh Hoang Definitions Vowels can be defined phonetically (based on how they are produced) or phonologically (based on their patterns and distributions) Phonetic definitions: ▪ Vowels are sounds that are made with open approximation of the articulators, involving “little contact and sometimes none at all” (Abercrombie, 1967, p 55); ▪ “The primary articulation of a vowel is a sound produced with open approximation, that is, with no constriction of the airstream within the vocal tract, which would produce audible friction” (Brown & Miller, 2013, p 468); ▪ “Phonetically, [vowels] are sounds articulated without a complete closure in the mouth or a degree of narrowing which would produce audible friction; the air escapes evenly over the centre of the tongue” (Crystal, 2008, p 517); ▪ “Vowels are the class of sound which makes the least obstruction to the flow of air” (Roach, 2011, p 100) 2 The description of vowels 2.1 Articulation Airstream mechanism: ▪ All English vowels are produced with a pulmonic egressive airstream ▪ Other mechanisms are possible are used for paralinguistic and extralinguistic purposes only Glottal setting: ▪ All English vowels are voiced; ▪ Other modes of phonation are used paralinguistically and extralinguistically only Airflow channel: ▪ All English vowels are oral sounds with central airflow; ▪ Vowels may have allophonic nasal quality in certain contexts Configuration of the mouth: All vowels involve double articulation (equal strictures of open approximation) made by the lips and the tongue ▪ The lips can be spread, neutral, or rounded; ▪ The tongue has a regularly curved convex surface with different parts raised for different vowels within the vowel space → The auditory quality of a vowel depends on the overall configuration of the supra-laryngeal vocal tract The tilted oval space of the vowel space, within which the highest point of the tongue body is placed in the production of vowels (Laver, 1994) Illustrations from Collins et al (2019) 2.2 The vowel chart and cardinal vowels Four extreme points within the vowel space can be identified, corresponding to the four vowels [i u a ɑ] The oval used to represent the vowel space is stylized for convenience, giving a two-dimensional vowel chart Tongue arch for [i] Tongue arch for [u] Tongue arch for [a] Tongue arch for [ɑ] In 1917, Daniel Jones proposed the system of cardinal vowels that can be used as reference points to locate vowels on the chart ▪ Cardinal vowel [i] is produced with the lips spread and the tongue as high and as far forward as possible without creating friction; Daniel Jones (1881 – 1967) Source: Google Image ▪ Cardinal vowel [ɑ] is produced with the lips in a neutral configuration and the tongue is as low and as far back as possible without creating friction; ▪ Cardinal vowels [e], [ɛ], and [a] form a series of equidistant steps at the front; ▪ Cardinal vowels [ɔ], [o], and [u] form a series of equidistant steps at the back, with an increase in lip-rounding Primary cardinal vowels (Roach, 2009) The cardinal vowels – are known as the primary cardinal vowels Each cardinal vowel is labelled based on the vertical dimension (close, close-mid, open-mid, and open), the horizontal dimension (front, central, and back), and lip shape (rounded and unrounded) ▪ CV1 [i]: front close unrounded; ▪ CV2 [e] front close-mid unrounded; ▪ CV3 [ɛ]: front open-mid unrounded; ▪ CV4 [a]: front open unrounded; ▪ CV5 [ɑ]: back open unrounded; ▪ CV6 [ɔ]: back open-mid rounded; ▪ CV7 [o]: back close-mid rounded; ▪ CV8 [u]: back close rounded Recording by Peter Ladefoged (1925-2006) Primary cardinal vowels (Roach, 2009) 2.3 Vowel length Distinctions of length at the phonemic level always go along with differences in phonetic quality E.g /iː/ is near CV1 and tends to be long, while /ɪ/ is between CV1 and CV2 and tends to be short Distinctions of length at the allophonic level depend on the following sounds E.g /iː/ decreases in length: bee >> bead >> beat 2.4 Steadiness of articulation If the active articulators remain in one position during the medial phase, a monophthong is produced E.g [ɛ] in bet, [ʊ] in put, [ɔː] in four, etc If the active articulators change from one position to another during the medial phase, a diphthong is produced E.g [aɪ] in try, [eɪ] in stay, [əʊ] in no, etc 3 Transcribing vowels 3.1 IPA symbols Different authors use different set of symbols to represent vowels Publications Symbols for British English vowels Jones et al (2011), Ogden (2009), Roach (2009), and Wells (2008) iː ɪ e æ ɜː ə ʌ uː ʊ ɔː ɒ ɑː ɪə eə ʊə aɪ eɪ ɔɪ əʊ aʊ Crystal (2019) iː ɪ e æ ɜː ə ʌ uː ʊ ɔː ɒ ɑː ɪə ɛə ʊə aɪ eɪ ɔɪ əʊ aʊ Collins et al (2019) iː ɪ e æ ɜː ə ʌ uː ʊ ɔː ɒ ɑː ɪə ɛː ʊə aɪ eɪ ɔɪ əʊ aʊ Crutteden (2014) iː ɪ e a ɜː ə ʌ uː ʊ ɔː ɒ ɑː ɪə ɛː ʊə aɪ eɪ ɔɪ əʊ aʊ Carr (2013), Ladefoged & Johnson (2014), and Tench (2011) iː ɪ ɛ æ ɜː ə ʌ uː ʊ ɔː ɒ ɑː ɪə ɛə ʊə aɪ eɪ ɔɪ əʊ aʊ Giegerich (1992) i ɪ ɛ a ɜ ə ʌ u ʊ ɔ ɒ ɑ ɪə ɛə ʊə aɪ e ɔɪ o aʊ 3.2 Lexical sets The lexical sets to describe English vowels were proposed in Wells (1982) Lexical set Members of the set Lexical set Members of the set FLEECE eat, meet, see, teach, etc NEAR near, beer, deer, fear, etc KIT it, sit, hit, bit, etc SQUARE bear, pear, dare, fair, etc DRESS met, let, strength, ten, etc CURE sure, tour, poor, etc TRAP cat, hat, clap, hand, etc FACE name, hate, tape, made, etc NURSE hurt, heard, girl, bird, etc PRICE cry, hide, mice, fight, etc STRUT love, hut, mud, son, etc CHOICE boy, noise, coin, toy, etc GOOSE school, fool, shoe, true, etc GOAT no, dose, cope, boat, etc FOOT good, full, put, look, etc MOUTH now, round, bounce, loud, etc THOUGHT four, more, lord, door, etc LOT not, pot, cot, hop, etc PALM star, guard, yard, part, etc 4 English vowels 4.1 Monophthongs Front Lip shape: Central iː Close uː ▪ Rounded: [uː, ʊ, ɔː, ɒ]; ▪ Unrounded: the others Back ɪ ʊ Close-mid ɔː ə/ɜː Tongue height: Ɛ ▪ Close: [iː ɪ ʊ uː]; Open-mid ▪ Close-mid: [ɔː]; ▪ Open-mid: [ɛ ə ɜː]; ɒ ʌ æ Open ɑː The vowel chart for GB monophthongs ▪ Open: [æ ʌ ɑː ɒ] Frontness: ▪ Front: [iː ɪ ɛ æ]; Front ▪ Central: [ə ɜː ʌ]; Central iː Close uː ▪ Back: [uː ʊ ɔː ɒ ɑː] Duration: ɪ ʊ Close-mid ▪ Short: [ɪ ʊ ɛ ə æ ʌ ɒ] Ɛ Open-mid ɒ ʌ → Length alone is non-contrastive in English, and the length of a vowel is subject to adjustments in certain phonetic contexts ɔː ə/ɜː ▪ Long: [iː uː ɜː ɔː ɑː]; → Alternative terms: tense vowels and lax vowels Back æ Open ɑː The vowel chart for GB monophthongs 4.2 Diphthongs 4.2.1 Centring diphthongs [ɪə] Description [ɛə] Glide begins in position Glide begins in front for [ɪ], moves backwards and open-mid position, move downwards towards [ə]; lips backwards towards [ə]; lips neutral, with slight movement neutrally open throughout from spread to open [ʊə] Glide begins in position in [ʊ], moves forwards and downwards towards [ə]; lips weakly rounded becoming neutrally spread Illustration black: GB red: variants (Crystal, 2019) Notes Monophthongized to [ɔː] for Monophthongized to [ɪː] for Monophthongized to [ɛː] for most speakers, especially in some young speakers most speakers sure, poor, & tour 4.2.2 Closing diphthongs 4.2.2.1 Ending in [ɪ] Description [eɪ] [aɪ] [ɔɪ] Glide begins from slightly below front close-mid position, moves upwards and slightly backwards towards [ɪ] ; lips spread Glide begins slightly behind front open position, moves upwards and towards [ɪ]; lips change from neutral to loosely spread; obvious closing movement of the lower jaw Glide begins between back close-mid and open-mid positions, moves upwards and forwards towards [ɪ]; lips open rounded changing to neutral Illustration black: GB red: variants (Crystal, 2019) Notes A more open starting point A backer starting point among A closer starting point among among young speakers young speakers young speakers 4.2.2.2 Ending in [ʊ] [əʊ] Description [aʊ] Glide begins in central position Glide begins between back and front open between close-mid and open-mid, moves positions, moves upwards and slightly backwards upwards and back towards [ʊ]; lips neutral towards [ʊ]; lips changing from neutrally open to changing to slightly rounded slightly rounded; jaw movement quite extensive Illustration black: GB red: variants (Crystal, 2019) Notes Transcribed as [oʊ] for the GA accent Can be transcribed as [ɑʊ] 4.3 Distribution 4.3.1 Vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables Vowels that can occur in stressed syllables: all except the schwa [ə] Vowels that can occur in unstressed syllables: all, but predominantly five weak vowels: Weak vowel Name Examples Notes [ə] schwa banana, computer, bonus the most common sound in English [ɪ] weak KIT ignore, damage, wanted ▪ used to be very common in the suffixes -less and ness, now increasingly replaced by [ə] ▪ still common in words like pocket, cabbage & -es/ed distinctions (centered vs scented; losers vs loses) [ʊ] weak FOOT accurate, regular now becoming increasingly rare and can be replaced by weak GOOSE or schwa [i] weak FLEECE happy, lazy, money, glorious used to be identical to weak KIT but now more like weak FLEECE (HappY tensing) [u] weak GOOSE strenuous, continuous used to be identical to weak FOOT, but now more like weak GOOSE 4.3.2 Vowels in open and closed syllables In a closed syllable (a syllable ending with a consonant), any vowel can occur In an open syllable: ▪ If the syllable is stressed, only long monophthongs and diphthongs can occur E.g decree [dɪˈkriː], deny [dɪˈnaɪ], *[bɪ, bɛ, bæ, bʌ, bʊ, bɒ] ▪ If the syllable is unstressed, only long monophthongs, diphthongs, and the five weak vowels can occur E.g causality [kɔːˈzæləti], direct [daɪˈrekt], away [əˈweɪ], believe [bɪˈliːv], happy [ˈhæpi] 5 Allophonic variants of the English vowels 5.1 Pre-fortis clipping A vowel is shortened before a voiceless (fortis) consonant Vowels Context Any vowel Before a voiceless (fortis) consonant Articulation Narrow transcription Long vowels: [i, u, etc.] Shortened Short vowels: [ɒ̆, ɛ̆, etc.] Examples beat [bit] vs bead [biːd] hit [hɪ̆t] vs him [hɪm] 5.2 Nasalization A vowel is nasalized (the velum is lowered during the offset phase) before a nasal Vowels Context Articulation Narrow transcription Any vowel Before a nasal Nasalized [ʌ̃, ɛ,̃ etc.] Examples tenth [tɛñ θ] tomb [tũːm] The Great Vowel Shift and recent developments 6.1 The Great Vowel Shift The GVS was a chain shift that happened between 1400 and 1700, separating Middle English from Modern English The GVS affected long vowels, moving them in a circular pattern: The Great Vowel Shift (Zsiga, 2013) ▪ The open vowel [aː] and [ɛː eː ɔː oː] were raised (moving up a step from their original positions) ▪ The close vowels diphthongized; [iː] and [uː] were name feet greet ride boote boot hous [aː] [eː] [ɛː] [iː] [oː] [ɔː] [u:] → [ɛː] → [e] → [əɪ] → [əʊ] → [eː] name → [iː] feet → [iː] greet → [aɪ] ride → [uː] boot → [o] boat → [aʊ] house Some words after the GVS (Algeo, 2010) 6.2 Recent developments 6.2.1 The anticlockwise vowel shift uː ʊ For young GB speakers: ▪ [uː] and [ʊ] are central (GOOSE-fronting); ɛ ɔː ▪ [ɛ] is near CV3; æ ▪ [æ] is near CV4, becoming [a] (TRAP-lowering); ɒ 20th century pronunciation ▪ [ɒ] is between CV5 and CV6; uː ʊ ▪ [ɔː] is near CV7 (THOUGHT-raising) ɔː ɛ ɒ a 21st century pronunciation (Carley et al., 2018) 6.2.2 Monophthonging of centring diphthongs Centring diphthongs are ‘destined to be lost from the GB accent’ (Carley et al., 2018, p 144): ▪ [ɛə] has become [ɛː]; ▪ [ɪə] has become [ɪː] for some speakers; ▪ [ʊə] has been increasingly replaced by [ɔː] 6.2.3 HappY tensing In certain phonetic environments, [i] (weak FLEECE) has replaced [ɪ] (weak KIT): ▪ in word-final position (happy, lazy, money); ▪ in morpheme-final position (anti-, multi-, semi-); ▪ before vowels (react, alien, piano, area); ▪ in word-initial be- (before), de- (delete), e- (elect), pre- (predict) and re- (repeat) References Abercrombie, D (1967) Elements of general phonetics Edinburgh University Press Algeo, J (2010) The origins and development of the English language (6th ed.) 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